1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to detecting malicious software, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for securing sensitive data from misappropriation by malicious software.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because of the development and progression of network accessible media content (e.g., videos, blogs, graphical images, news and/or the like), people have become more computer savvy and spend a significant amount of time browsing the Internet to communicate with other people (e.g., through instant messages and emails), conduct research (e.g., through educational websites, digital libraries and expert discussion forums), perform business applications (e.g., online securities trading and bank account management) and/or the like.
As Internet usage increases, proliferation of network-based threats across computer networks (e.g., malicious software, spyware, worms, rootkits and/or the like) also increases. Generally, malicious software is designed to exert control over and/or cause damage to the computer. For example, activities performed by the malicious software disrupt or degrade the performance of various computer resources, such as a processor, an operating system, a computer memory, a software application and/or the like. Furthermore, the malicious software compromises sensitive data (e.g., passwords, security question answers, credit cards, social security numbers and/or the like). For example, the malicious software misappropriates a password that is used to authenticate access to an online checking account.
Current anti-malicious software techniques utilize pre-determined definitions (e.g., code-based or activity-based signatures) to detect the malicious software on the computer. Such pre-determined definitions, however, do not include recent information for detecting and/or mitigating latest malicious software. As a result, the computer is infected and the sensitive data is compromised by the latest malicious software due to a lack of up to'date definitions.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for securing sensitive data from misappropriation by malicious software.